A Way Of Knowing

Poetry, Insight, Image, Trust

by Joy Mead

Review:Joy Mead is a member of the Iona Community and is involved in creative writing groups. This, her new book, is in three sections - Looking, Seeing, Sharing - but with one theme, indigenous knowledge. That is knowledge that is not intellectual, but which comes through our relationship with others, through story and poetry and through our senses. The book consists of a collection of her own poems and prose pieces with the emphasis on looking, seeing, sharing. The prose pieces are often reflections on Bible stories and parables. She insists that everyone loves a story and it is through stories that we build up relationships with other people. For her, worship centres on poetry and stories and that is why the Bible is full of them. Her own poetry is easy to read but is full of meaning and inspires reflection. The whole book is a new slant on the way we worship and communicate.